


Jack Frost Nippin' At Your Nose

by nofLEXzone



Category: One Direction
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Flashback, Fluff, ziall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 03:24:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5569042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nofLEXzone/pseuds/nofLEXzone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little bit of Christmassy nostalgia</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jack Frost Nippin' At Your Nose

“Which bin is it?” Zayn calls down the attic ladder. He can hear shuffling and he smiles when a blonde head pops out from behind the steps.

 

“The one marked christmas lights.” Niall smirks up at him and Zayn narrows his eyes but by the time he flicks his middle finger out Niall’s gone. Zayn huffs and kicks an unmarked box with his foot. He can still see Niall’s frown as he explained, _But_ _Babe I refuse to let Louis and Harry out do us again_. However it wasn’t _his_ idea to start decorating for Christmas so he didn’t understand why _he_ was the one in the stuffy attic looking for lights. 

 

After what felt like seventeen years of searching Zayn started back down the ladder empty handed.

 

“I’m telling you, it’s not up-” Before he can finish, his foot misses the last rung of the ladder and his body jerks backwards. Zayn squeezes his eyes shut, praying Niall forgot to move that heap of Christmas bedding that was at the foot of the ladder. 

 

Two arms slide around his upper body, hooking under his arms and catching him. Zayn mentally thanks every God he can think of and tilts his head back against the solid chest that’s pressed up against him. Niall is smiling above him, his eyes crinkling as he holds in a laugh.

 

“You alright there babe?” Niall asks as he helps Zayn stand up, jokingly dusting off his shoulders. Zayn narrows his eyes and frowns but that only makes Niall smile wider. He runs a finger between Zayn’s eyebrows, smoothing out the wrinkles that were forming there and Zayn’s face softens immediately, smiling back at the boy in front of him.

 

Niall ghosts his fingers over Zayn’s jaw and leans in to leave a soft kiss on his lips. Niall smiles against Zayn’s mouth and it makes his entire body relax. Zayn can’t help but smile back. 

 

After being branded the moody, mysterious, and dark one in the band, Zayn had kind of started to play the role. Sure, he smoked and prefered all black outfits but he genuinely wasn’t the moody asshole Management sold him out to be. More soft spoken than anything. And while the boys knew that, the only one that went out of his way to show the world the real Zayn was Niall.

 

Whether he’s going out of his way to talk to Zayn in an interview or plopping down on the tour bus loveseat to chat about their days, Niall is always there. He is always trying to coax the best out of Zayn, and almost every time he succeeds because there’s something about the radiating happiness that Niall emits that sucks any and everyone in. But especially Zayn. He makes Zayn really happy. 

 

When Zayn pulls himself out of his thoughts he realizes he's standing alone again. He looks around, quickly spotting Niall bent over a large box. He’s about to make a joke about something he'd rather bend Niall over when the boy turns around, cheeks flushed. 

 

“The box was down here the whole time.” Niall's cheeks are pink but he's smiling and Zayn wants to kiss the blush until it's a permanent part of Niall’s face. He makes sure to roll his eyes, though his stupidly large grin really dilutes the annoyed effect he was going for. Niall pops the box open and begins to unload what appears to be a child sized knot of Christmas lights.  

 

“Fucking hell.” Niall looks up pleading Zayn for some kind of help. It only takes ten minutes and a chorus of  _ fuck this _ and  _ we can just buy new lights Niall  _ before they get the strands untangled. Once they have the working lights in one neat pile they trash the bad lights and agree a break is in order. 

 

Niall comes back from the kitchen with two mugs of hot chocolate and Zayn scoots over so he can fall into the couch. After putting the mugs on the table Niall reflexively tugs Zayn back against him, wrapping his strong arms around him and placing a kiss on his head. Zayn sighs as he melts into Niall's chest, wondering just when it got so broad. He focuses on the steady comforting rhythm of Niall’s heartbeat as his eyes slowly slide shut. 

 

“Guess what I'm thinking about.” Niall says startling Zayn a little. Zayn whines tucking his head under Niall’s chin. He never wants to play this game because Niall is notorious for actually making you guess and Zayn wasn't up for that. Niall just laughs and draws circles on Zayn’s leg with his pointer finger. “Remember when we went Christmas tree shopping last year? How bloody cold and angry you were?” Zayn was vibrating from the light bounce of Niall’s chest as he laughed. 

 

“You all took forever to pick out a goddamn tree.” Zayn remembers it as simultaneously the best and worst night of his life. He was unprepared for an outing in the cold and suffered a massive head cold the week following, but it was also the first time Niall kissed him.

 

**

 

There were flurries of snow falling steadily and Zayn was silently begging someone to make it fucking stop. His leather jacket was absorbing the cold and holding it against his skin. He had been shivering for twenty minutes now and all the while he had been mentally creating several deaths for Louis in his head. When Liam mentioned getting a Christmas tree as a band Zayn didn't expect Louis to drag them out that night. 

 

Zayn was all about decorating a tree as a band, inside a nice warm flat with drinks and blankets and _warmth_. But when he suggested they let someone else pick their tree Louis nearly spit his tea out. _What kind of lunatic doesn't want to pick out his own Christmas tree?_ _This lunatic_ , Zayn had said pointedly. 

 

When they arrived at the tree farm all the boys took off excitedly and that's how Zayn ended up alone, scuffing his boots along the snowy ground. He shoved his hands into his cold pockets and began walking aimlessly through the lines of trees. He was at least thankful they had rented the farm out so he didn't have to worry about fans popping out from behind Douglas firs asking a very frost bitten Zayn for a picture. 

 

He was slowly winding his way through the rows of trees, grumbling to himself about how nice a bath would be right now and how he would feel about losing a toe to frostbite. 

 

“I'd reckon you'd fall over way more.” Zayn smiled at the accent before he saw him. Niall stepped into plain sight and smiled at Zayn. Zayn felt a tug in his chest and cleared his throat when he realized he was grinning at Niall like an idiot. 

 

“What are you doing back here horan?” Zayn was so cold he was sure his joints were minutes away from locking up.

 

“Looking for you.” Niall cocked his head and smiled like Zayn should have expected him to say that. It made Zayn’s stomach tighten.

 

“Have you found a tree yet?” Niall was closer to Zayn now, inspecting his thin weather-inappropriate outfit. 

 

“Aren't you cold?” Niall asked ignoring Zayn's question. 

 

“Bloody freezing.” Zayn shrugged, hands still tucked deep into his pockets. 

 

“Why didn't you wear a jacket?” Zayn rolled his eyes. 

 

“I did. It's just not thick enough.” Now it was Niall's turn to roll his eyes. Zayn looked at his feet, trying hard not to focus on the rosy redness of Niall's cheeks and the soft swirl of his hair from where it sticks out of his beanie. He looks back up when he hears the drawn out sound of a zipper. Niall shrugs off his jacket. 

 

“Here take mine.” His chest tugs again. 

 

“No way.”

 

“Zayn.”

 

“Niall.”

 

“Take the jacket.”

 

“What about you?” Niall smiled at him and just shrugged. He was still under two pretty thick layers. 

 

“Irish blood mate. I'll be fine.” Zayn actually giggles at that because there's no fucking logic behind it but he would trust anything that came out of Niall's mouth if it was followed by that warm smile of his.

 

Zayn mutters a small “Thanks” but he furrows his brow and bites his lip. Without any warning Niall steps forward and wipes his finger between Zayn's eyebrows. It's so gentle and his hand is so warm that Zayn's scowl falls instantly. 

 

“You should frown less. It's not good for you, even if it is really cute.” Niall says it so simply and matter-of-fact that Zayn takes a second to process it. 

 

“You think I’m cute?” Zayn asks before he can stop himself. 

 

“Don’t be so thick.” Niall laughs and Zayn thinks he could make the warmest coat out of Niall's laughter. Zayn raises his eyebrows in question but instead of explaining himself Niall reaches out and ghosts his thumb across Zayn’s cheek.

 

Suddenly, even though the flurries had increased steadily, Zayn had never felt warmer. He expected Niall to pull his hand back and explain that he was wiping away an eyelash or something, in which case Zayn would laugh it off. But Niall doesn’t.

 

“Niall,” He’s not sure what he plans on saying but it doesn't matter because he never gets it out.

 

Niall steps closer, bringing the fingers that were on Zayn’s cheek to his jaw. He pulls him in and kisses him so softly Zayn thinks he might be imagining it. Niall’s lips were so warm and soft and Zayn’s mind was swimming. It was like waiting all year for your favorite holiday. Hah, maybe Christmas would be his favorite holiday from now on. Zayn was so gone for this boy.

 

Niall-- whose eyes light up when Zayn walks in the room, who literally beams when Zayn hits his high notes, his bandmate-- was kissing him and all he could think was  _ finallyfinallyfinally _ . Zayn cupped Niall’s face with both hands and tugged him a little closer. Niall giggled against his mouth and Zayn’s smile nearly splits his face in half.

 

They pull apart sooner than Zayn would prefer.

  
Niall’s smile is soft and he glances down at his shoes shyly. Zayn was positive he couldn’t love this boy anymore if you paid him. He slides his hand underneath Niall’s and links their fingers together. Niall finally looks at him, a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, and Zayn has a feeling the bloom of red on Niall’s cheeks isn’t from the cold air.


End file.
